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Andy Hamilton

Andy
Hamilton

BB
recently chatted to Andy and asked him for some juicy home-brewing tips and
future projects

Much
of your work in your books and your website Theotherandyhamilton.com is centred
on making use of what you have in inventive, unexpected, and might I add damn
tasty ways. What gives you the ideas? Are they the result of successful
experiments or are you passing down older recipes?

It's a mixture of both
really, often I'll see a recipe and think, "That looks good, I wonder if
it will work with x ingredient instead". Then there are some old recipes
that just work and are (as you say) damn tasty, it would always be a shame not
to include these. Sometimes if the recipe is old it will need bringing up to
date, the addition of yeast nutrient or cold tea can make all the difference. I
also work by finding things whilst out foraging and knowing that I enjoy the
flavour of them I then try and work out how they would work as a drink.

I’ve
made your nettle beer recipe quite a few times with amazing success – very
popular and a great mixer with cava to make hedgerow cocktails (dead posh!).
However, on a last occasion I added too much yeast and the brew became pretty
volatile, blowing the corks out of the bottles gushing it everywhere.
What the worst mishap you’ve had with home brewing?

I suggest that you bottled
too early with that one, rather than added too much yeast. A mistake that I
made with elderberry wine a few years back when we lived in a rented house. Our
then landlord, in his infinite wisdom, decided to paint the kitchen white. We
protested as the house was damp and knew it would only be a matter of time
before it looked grotty again. Well, that time arrived sooner than we thought.
The day after it was painted I'd stacked 6 fresh bottles of my finest
elderberry on the top of our shelves. We sat in the living room watching some
telly and heard pop followed by a pouring sound. We ran into the kitchen to
find a bottle had spurted its contents all over the ceiling and down the
freshly painted walls, wine was dripping out of our cookbooks and my bread
machine, which became a right off!

Other disasters have
happened when I haven't sterilised properly, if there were any two bits of
advice I could give to new booze makers it would be to bottle later and to
sterilise everything.

With
the success of River Cottage, What to eat now, wild food and similar, ideas
about foraging natural foods and cooking up homegrown recipes seem very popular
at the moment. Why do you think that is?

I think it depends on what
you mean by popular, people do love reading about wild food, going on wild food
courses and even sometimes eating it in restaurants but even people that come
on my courses don't always apply the knowledge. There is still an idea that all
wild food is poisonous or is covered in wee from a fictitious dog with a
massive bladder. The thing that many people don't realise is that they are
foragers and have been all of their lives, think about blackberries, I bet you
have picked them and have done for years. If so then you are forager. I'd like
to see people getting braver and perhaps foraging just some of the weeds in
their gardens or allotments and using them in meals. Of course you do need to
make sure that you know what you are doing but there is a lot of info out
there.

Have
you plans for another book? If so, can you share hints?

I have plans for many more
books! I am currently writing just one of them, Brewing Britain - Search
for the perfect pint*. It's due for release in the Autumn 2013. Its very
different than anything I have written before and will have a lot more of me in
it. Over this summer I have been sampling some of the best beer made in this
country and believe me there is a lot of it around. This Autumn I am to become
a Dad and so this is my final bout of freedom before I turn all
responsible.

Once our boy is born,
being housebound I'll be brewing on an almost daily bases. I'm building a small
brewing area onto the side of my house and I'll be brewing up beers using
knowledge gained from some of the best brewers in the world. As for hints, well
I'd suggest that any beer brewer should do exactly as I have and try out as
many beers as possible. Beer is amazing right now and it looks like it
continues to do so. Don't go for fancy labels but do your research and look out
for great artisan beer. What I'm discovering also is that its all about
the yeast but you'll find out more next Autumn!

Finally,
what’s your best original recipe?

Sloe Whiskey

You might have tried sloe
gin, but most other spirits can be used and the final results can transform
that neglected Christmas present left at the back of the drinks cabinet. This
recipe uses Whiskey.

Ingredients

450g Sloes

225g Sugar

1 litre Whiskey

1 drop of almond essence

Put half the sloes and
half the sugar into a sterilized kilner jar – ensuring that the sloes have been
left in the freezer overnight. Pour over half a litre of the whiskey
and the drop of almond essence and shake vigorously. Place the jar in the tea
cupboard and shake every time you make a cuppa. Repeat until the sugar has
completely dissolved. Then shake every couple of weeks for three to six months.
After this time decant back into the bottle and try and leave until this time
next year by which point it will be delicious.